Opportunity Knocked for Lena Zavaroni but dream turned into a nightmare

She was the original talent show star. And one of the youngest ­performers to be chewed up and spat out by the entertainment industry. No wonder even a quarter of a century after her death, amid the rise of teen influencers, reality TV and social media, Lena Zavaroni’s tragedy remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of fame.

The Scottish singer won TV’s Opportunity Knocks talent show five weeks on the bounce in 1974 – eventually, they had to stand her down to give someone else a chance. Then, aged 10, she became the youngest person in history to have an album in the UK Top 10.

Later, she starred in her own TV series. But, from the age of 13, she suffered from anorexia nervosa, developing clinical depression at 15. Following an operation, she died from pneumonia in October 1999 aged­ just 35.

Now, actor-turned-playwright Tim Whitnall has written her story, which will debut at the Edinburgh Festival from August 3. He’s better placed than most to tell her tale, having been a child star himself.

Tim was just 16 when he landed the role of the teenage Elvis in the West End musical of the star’s life in 1977. Shakin’ Stevens played the King as a young adult and PJ Proby the older version.

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“I had no grounding in show business,” says Tim, now 61. “It plunged me into this very adult, totally unfamiliar world. I’ll never forget it.

“I was at school in Suffolk on the Friday evening, and then I moved to my uncle’s place in Woodford Green, Essex. By the Monday morning, I was on the London Underground for the first time in my life, heading to the theatre, my face plastered over the front page of every newspaper.

“Luckily, I came from a very strong family so, although I was only a teenager, I had the right values in place. That said, I look back now and shudder to realise just how naïve and vulnerable I must have been.”

One can only guess, he says, at the total sea change experienced by Lena whose ­family lived on the Isle of Bute, off Scotland’s west coast, where her dad, Victor, owned a fish ’n’ chip shop. “It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for her moving from ­ a remote Scottish island to ­living in Mayfair and appearing on national television every week.

“It’s the stuff of fairy tales – or full-blown nightmares. It was only as an adult that I realised the price she paid for her stardom: you get what you want but you lose what you had.”

Lena was discovered by record producer Tommy Scott. While on holiday in Bute, he walked past the chippie one day and heard her ­singing. He had produced records by Van Morrison, the Bachelors, ­ the Dubliners. So, he walked in – and the ­­rest is history.

Whitnall, who won a Bafta for his TV movie on Kenny Everett and an Olivier for his play based on the life of Eric Morecambe, insists he tried his utmost to celebrate the life of Lena while not ducking her dark side.

That darkness quickly developed into an eating disorder, not helped by public scrutiny. One famous newspaper headline read: “Opportunity Knocks The Pounds Off Lena!” There’s also a famous Terry Wogan interview, recalls Tim, in which he’s discussing Lena’s weight loss.

“Soon,” says Terry, “you’ll be back to your normal chubby self!” It gets worse. Presenter Frank Bough once asked her on national TV if ­anorexia helped her cut down on restaurant bills. “You’d lose your job for that these days,” Whitnall points out.

Host of Opportunity Knocks was the oleaginous Hughie Green who, some might think, ought to share some blame for what happened to Lena. Whitnall disagrees.

“No, I think it’s the machine rather than particular individuals that contributed to her downfall,” he continues. “It was a perfect storm. There was this child, a diamond in the rough, with an incredible talent but with an undeniable, innate flaw. And extreme fame rarely sits well on the very young.

“When I was writing this play, I spoke to ­ Alex Yellowlees, a ­consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Clinic, and he made an interesting point.

“If you take a child on the edge of puberty and you change them, they stay changed forever. Take a nine or 10-year-old girl and stick her in the ­spotlight and you can have serious problems.

“If that spotlight is the school playground that can be difficult enough. But, if it’s the public spotlight, then that’s very different. It’s there forever. Look what the Hollywood studio system did to Judy Garland. She was playing Dorothy, as it were, way beyond her teenage years.

“Fine if you’re tough but if you’re vulnerable – like Amy Winehouse or Caroline Flack or Susan Boyle – the outcome can be ­dangerous and unpredictable. There was additional pressure for Lena to remain artificially young. I think she ­must have hated the baby doll dresses ­and ringlets.”

At six, Bonnie Langford won Opportunity Knocks and later befriended the equally precocious Lena, her exact contemporary. Their trajectories were to diverge dramatically as Lena’s health deteriorated. Lena ended up having neurosurgery, but pneumonia set in and she died weighing little more than four stone.

Langford pays tribute to her old friend. “She told me she had to get rid of what she called the black spot in her head,” she says. “What happened ­to her was ­undeniably tragic but I ­remember her as very funny, very naughty and hugely talented. Sadly, she’s forever defined as a victim. But that was far from her whole story.”

Starring in the title role of the new play is Erin Armstrong, who says she’d never heard of Lena Zavaroni when she was invited to audition.

“My mum and dad immediately knew who she was but I was only four when she died,” she explains.

“So, I did a bit of research and, increasingly, she really resonated with me. She obviously had star quality with a real gift for conveying deep emotion in a song, despite her age. Hers was a phenomenal talent but she was a normal girl from a normal background.”

Except, ultimately, she didn’t have the stability to handle extreme fame. “It’s a hard industry,” says Armstrong, 27, familiar to TV audiences thanks to roles in Shetland and Emmerdale.

“But she also clearly had a flaw. It’s the old argument of nature versus nurture. Was it the environment or her genetics? Probably, a combination of the two. She was a child thrust into an adult world. And I don’t feel she was adequately protected, which must have had an impact on her sense of self.”

But would the sad arc of Lena’s life be the same if she were a 10-year-old star today? “I think we’re better now at talking about mental health,” Armstrong adds. “But, set against that, there’s been the explosion in social media and the insidious effect that can have.”

Armstrong herself travelled to America when she was just 18 in search of work. “I remember one ­casting director telling me I ought to lose weight to increase my chances of getting roles,” she says. “I didn’t take any notice but it proves that that sort of thing still goes on.”

Playing Hughie Green is the famous impressionist Jon Culshaw who believes it’s unfair to blame the Opportunity Knocks host for Lena’s tragic demise.

“He was certainly a pretty slick operator,” says Culshaw. “But I don’t think that what happened to Lena was his fault. That was down to the all-consuming nature of the entertainment industry which can sometimes be guilty of not taking enough care of anyone vulnerable.

“Nowadays, the explosion in social media represents a new challenge. The individual comments can flock together almost like a starling murmuration of opinion and it’s easy to get spooked by it.

“You have to work extra hard to turn away from the shallow ideas of what it is to be ­perfect and beautiful and rejoin the real world. And, if you’re 10 years old, you need wise people around you.”

Culshaw never ­­met Lena but recalls seeing her with Les Dawson on her 1981 TV show.

“What struck me was the humour and warmth between them. It was lovely seeing her full of laughter. The play is very good at showing that side of her.

“The trouble was – and perhaps still is – that show business is a hungry, unforgiving beast. You’re singing for the US President? You’re on the Royal Variety Show? You must never be less than perfect. That exerts a huge amount of pressure.”

Working on this play, Culshaw has been able to study Lena’s character in depth.

“I think she’s adorable,” he says. “What a voice! What incredible stage presence! She was a real trouper, a true professional. So, it was a real tragedy that it ended as it did.”

Had Lena survived, she would be of a ­similar age to Culshaw now.

“I’ve just celebrated my 55th birthday. I realised the other day that Lena would have been 60 in November had she lived. That seems terribly sad.”

• Lena is at Assembly: Gordon Aikman Theatre, Edinburgh, from August 3 to 28